News

The VGM and what it means for you

It’s almost time.

From the 1st July, 2016, the SOLAS amendment requiring mandatory verification of the gross weight of packed containers becomes enforced.

All export containers leaving Australia must have the Verified Gross Weight (known as the Verified Gross Mass or VGM) declared to the terminal representative. And if there is no VGM, the terminal must not load the container.

Are you ready? Do you know what you need to do?

There are many conversations happening in relation to the VGM, and how the information is going to be captured and sent to the terminal.

We are lucky in Australia. We have the PRA – 1-Stop’s electronic document – that is used at all the container terminals to validate export containers. So it makes perfect sense to capture the VGM details in the PRA then, right?

If you send a PRA, from July you must include the verified weight, the details of how it was verified, and who verified it.

If your PRA doesn’t have that info, it will be rejected.

I urge to click and read the information provided in the links that follow, so that you can continue to operate smoothly, come July.

Best Regards,

Michael Bouari, CEO.

Edit 27/05/2016: 1-Stop will enforce the VGM fields in the PRA from 2pm on the 22nd June. See the notice here.